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A Tiger on the Prowl

There isn’t much to read into from the first day of British Open results, though that won’t stop us from trying. Tiger Woods is near the top of the leaderboard, as he’s often been at the start of these tournaments, just three strokes behind current leader Adam Scott, who tied the Royal Lytham & St. Annes course record. It’s already a relatively narrow competition field: Of the 90 players on the course in the morning wave, only 19 were under par. That isn’t surprising, considering the reportedly difficult playing conditions of tall grass grown by abundant rainfall, reported by some players as “almost unplayable.”

Reuters

Tiger Woods shot 3-under and sits three strokes behind Adam Scott after the first day of the British Open.

Which means eyes are already on Woods, as they typically are, to see if he’ll be able to capture his first major since the 2008 U.S. Open and another on the way toward eclipsing Jack Nicklaus’ record 18. “Woods is the favorite, understandably. As a three-time British Open champion, he clearly knows how it works. He also has three wins on Tour this year, more than anyone else, and ball-striking right now is the strength of his game,” writes the Journal’s John Paul Newport. “A year ago Woods ranked near the bottom in driving accuracy. This year he is 46th in that category, fifth in total driving (a combination of accuracy and distance) and 11th in greens in regulation.”

It’s more than just statistics, too. As the New Yorker’s John Cassidy notes, Woods is once again cutting a terse figure on and off the green. “Even now, after all he’s been through, he can be surly, truculent, and intimidating. At a press conference after a practice round on Tuesday, he gave monosyllabic answers to several questions,which didn’t endear him to anybody,” he writes. “But I took that as a positive sign. Maybe he thinks his game is back to the level where he believes it can talk for him, and he no longer has to go through the motions of being a reformed character. Monomaniacs are difficult to like. But even in world of near-randomness, they tend to come out on top.”

Of course, that isn’t to say Woods is the only golfer worth following. Several other golfers like Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson and Paul Lawrie are also in the mix. The Journal’s Timothy J. Carroll picks Hunter Mahan as this year’s surprise victor, as 15 different golfers have won the last 15 majors Opens. We’ll know soon enough which way the wind is blowing when play resumes today.

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The fallout over Jeremy Lin leaving the New York Knicks for the Houston Rockets might not be over so soon. There’s still plenty of merchandise to dump, reunions to fantasize about and anger to work through. Take it from the Journal’s Jeff Yang: “I’m not even going to pretend to be dispassionate or objective here. Bottom line: The Knicks’ decision to allow the Houston Rockets to snatch Jeremy Lin is a gut-punch, the kind of soul-killing punk move that, in my personal opinion, shows zero respect for either the player or the fans he helped teach to believe again after years of wandering in the wilderness.”

The disappointment can really be felt, though, after Lin revealed that his preference would’ve been to stay in New York. In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Pablo S. Torre, Lin said he’d been steered toward testing the free market by Knicks management, who acknowledged they were looking to bring in a veteran point guard to potentially join him. He ended the interview by talking about how much he loves the New York fans, and how he wished he could’ve played in front of them for the rest of his career. Which means — surprise — that the Knicks management may further continue to look like the bad guy in all of this drama. “It’ll be fascinating to see what Dolan, CAA or whomever else have up their sleeves if they want to paint that guy as a villain,” writes Yahoo’s Dan Devine. “I’m sure someone in the Garden’s Photoshopping Lin with a coat made out of puppies as we speak.”

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Sports fans are plenty familiar with the concept of potential and the melange of emotions — among them disappointment, fury and sadness — when an athlete fails to live up to the expectations set for him. But rarely in sports does a prospect just completely drop off the map without any sort of explanation. In the New York Observer, Sarah Weinman tells the tale of Peter Winston, a one-time child chess prodigy who disappeared more than 30 years ago. The story opens up in 1972, when a 14-year old Winston played a game against Walter Browne, a six-time U.S. champion and “the best American player not named Bobby Fischer.”

“Thirty-seven moves later, it had indeed been a cakewalk. But it was the kid, Peter Winston, who emerged the victor, ‘blowing up Browne’s position in a way that never happens to a player of his caliber,’ as Chess Life magazine explained. Winston crushed the elder player so decisively that their contest would be discussed in chess circles for years, called simply ‘The Game,’” Weinman writes. “Winston, some thought, had the chops to be a grandmaster. Instead, a few years later, he would make a move more bewildering than anything he’d done in front of a chessboard.” Weinman tells her narrative with dramatic aplomb, though the conclusion might disappoint you. But there’s enough material for Hollywood to come-a-calling, in case some studio executive ever decides that “Searching for Bobby Fischer” needs a spiritual sequel.

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This story isn’t about an athlete, professional or casual. It’s more about how the sports experience can be the closest form of belonging that some people will ever know. Over at Grantland, Bryan Curtis chronicles the story of Sherwin Shayegan, the so-called Piggyback Bandit, an arrested development eccentric who seems to have devoted his adult life to ingratiating himself with high-school athletes before ambushing them with a piggyback ride. Yes, you read right: He shows up to a school, attempts to pass himself off as an insider, then eventually tries to jump on their back. It’s exactly as strange as it sounds, which makes it all the more compelling.

“The journey Sherwin embarked on in February, an epic, 3,000-mile round trip, is one I’m determined to retrace. By talking to the Bandit’s victims, I want to discover just how Sherwin pulled it off,” Curtis writes. “And why. I tell Sherwin’s old boss at the clothing store that Sherwin seemed like he was trying to re-create his time at Inglemoor High. He was trying to find a way to rejoin the social norm. Sherwin Shayegan wanted to become the team manager to America.”

Comments (1 of 1)

I am so tired of hearing about Tiger. How many articles are there on Adam Scott who tied the course record yesterday? And can we please find new words when talking about Tiger? "on the prowl" "the roar of the crowd" it was cute back in the 90's.

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